The job of the Rochester Police Department: to protect us from ourselves!

Western New York winters seem to depress a lot of residents. People complain about the cold, the snow and how long the winters are. Frequently, people say that if they could, they’d move south, where the weather is warmer.

Then summer comes.

People then complain about the heat and humidity!

Oh, well. There’s just no pleasing some people.

One of the nastier side effects of summer weather in Rochester is that crime rates go up. This is probably because warmer weather is conducive to being outdoors, rather than being cooped up because of the wind, the cold and the snow.

On the other hand, Rochester’s chief of police James Sheppard continually says that violent crime rates in the city are down. Never mind the fact that there have been a spate of murders occurring in Rochester as of late: last night, a 16 year-old boy was mudered on the east side of the city. How high is the tally of murders now?

And summer has just started!

We ought not forget that Rochester had been recently hailed as the “murder capital” of New York State. This is not good for business, despite Sheppard’s assurances that violent crime is down from previous years.

Of course, the far right screams that the spike in murders occurs because gun laws are too tough. They are referring to pistols, easily concealed and the frequent weapon of choice for criminals. If such laws were “too tough,” criminals wouldn’t have such apparently easy access to guns.

But then, there is something almost Freudian about the gun toters’ arguments, although they do like to wrap them up in the constitutional right to bear arms.

So, where does that leave the police?

Frankly, the police force cannot be everywhere all of the time. Rochester simply does not have the money to have two or three beat cops walking every block in the city at all hours of the day and night. Even if the police concentrated largely in areas where high rates of crime and shootings are prevalent, we still don’t have the manpower to do it. And other neighborhoods would feel as though they are being ignored.

So people complain about poor response times on the part of the police. This goes back to the time the precinct system was eliminated when the current lieutenant governor was Rochester’s chief of police. The east-west division of Rochester’s police department was a one-time only money saving ploy when the city still had money. It “saved” less than a million bucks, but cost far more in neighborhood morale and the feeling of security. Some things cannot be measured by money.

That being said, what are the police to do?

While the police department can be aware of areas in the city where there is a high occurrence of crime, they cannot respond until there is an actual incident. When they do respond to a crime, people complain that they didn’t get there soon enough, that they have mishandled the investigation and ask what are they going to do about it in the future to prevent the occurrence of such incidents.

Well, the police could frisk everyone walking the streets as a preventative action, but then they would be held up to charges of “profiling.”

Every citizen has the legal right to be out and about in public at any time of the day and be unmolested, whether it be by the police department or by private individuals.

There’s the rub: it’s those private individuals ( the criminals ) who are pushing the envelope, and the police have to walk a torturous tightrope protecting us from them!

Add to that the prevailing attitude of “Don’t Snitch” among people who know something about the crimes in this city ( at the same time those same people complain that the police “aren’t doing anything” to solve crimes ), and the police department’s hands become even more tied.

Oh, well. What it really boils down to is that the job of our police department is to protect us from people who choose to do us harm. Since they can’t prevent criminal acts from occurring, they must speedily investigate, catch and bring the wrongdoers to justice. For that to occur, they need our help. “Don’t Snitch” merely helps the criminals. The maxim qui tacet consentivet ( “silence gives consent” ) comes to mind here. People who know something about the crime, and refuse to inform the police, are consenting to the crime having taken place. They have, in effect, become accessories after the fact in the crime by witholding evidence. And the cycle continues.

But summer is here, the weather is warm, the festivals occur every weekend and they are all well-attended. Fall and colder weather will be coming in a few months, and the crime rate should drop again.

And people complain about the winter! It’s the safest time of the year!

Contributors

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Rich Gardner has been writing about the history, culture and waterways of Upstate New York for years. His articles have appeared in U.S. and Canadian publications, and one book, Learning to Walk. He is an alumnus of Brighton High School and SUNY Geneseo. He operates Upstate Resume & Writing Service in Brighton and recently moved to Corn Hill, where he is already involved in community projects. "I enjoy the 'Aha!' moments of learning new things, conceptual and literal. City living is a great teacher."

Ken Warner grew up in Brockport and first experienced Rochester as a messenger boy for a law firm in Midtown Tower. He recently moved downtown into a loft on the 13th floor of the Temple Building with a view of the Liberty Poll and works in the Powers Building overlooking Rochester’s four corners as Executive Director for UNICON, an organization devoted to bringing economic development to the community. He hopes to use his Rochester Blog to share his observations from these unique views of downtown.